


Tequila Sunset

by Turandot (LostOzian)



Series: P5(R) Girls Week 2021 [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Being a reporter is suffering, Character Study, Friendship, Getting emotional about sunsets for the win, Hawaii, Hopeful Ending, Processing feelings of hating the world, The bond between a drunk reporter and her favorite bartender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 10:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30071178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostOzian/pseuds/Turandot
Summary: In the window of a Hawaiian tourist trap, Ichiko had seen a postcard of a bird of paradise that reminded her of Lala-chan’s eyeshadow game, so she sprung for it. Now she had to figure out what to write. The little square wouldn’t let her put down more than a few words, so she had to make them count.Persona 5(R) Girls Week Day 2: Sunshine
Relationships: Ohya Ichiko & Lala Escargot
Series: P5(R) Girls Week 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2214093
Kudos: 3





	Tequila Sunset

_It’s a pain in the ass, trying to figure out what to put in a postcard…_

Ichiko hated Hawaii. Even in September, the heat was on par with Japan’s scathing summer, and the humidity on top of it made her feel like her bones had turned to wax. Ichiko’s exercise regimen of chasing leads gave her great calves and kept her skinny, but all the beach bods everywhere just made her feel bitter. The nice places to hang out were too expensive, and the cheap places were too much like Shinjuku in all the worst ways: preying on the innocence of tourists to make a quick buck.

And all the American alcohol was too expensive. A combination of high taxes and price gouging. If Ichiko wanted to keep her travel budget balanced, she couldn’t afford to start drinking until late, and with every beam of the sun, Ichiko could feel the lack of booze in her system like gears grinding in the wrong direction. 

She had work to keep her busy. Articles to revise and submit, enough to fill a twelve-hour workday on these foreign shores. If she didn’t finish those, she might as well apply for political asylum in America for what Chief would do to her. And she could chase new leads here too, like about how Big Bang Burger suddenly started expanding abroad. How a Japanese company could find a foothold in WcDonalds’ backyard, Ichiko knew there had to be a story there…

…And it had nothing to do with the culture and entertainment section.

Or with Ichiko’s postcard.

She was procrastinating. In the window of a tourist trap, Ichiko had seen a postcard of a bird of paradise that reminded her of Lala-chan’s eyeshadow game, so she sprung for it. Now she had to figure out what to write. The little square wouldn’t let her put down more than a few words, so she had to make them count. She wouldn’t even be mailing it from Hawaii, not when she had her return flight booked.

What to write, what to write… “Missing you?” Was Ichiko missing her? She had Lala-chan on the mind a lot here, but she didn’t feel like the space beside her was some kind of void. Spending time on her own didn’t bother Ichiko, hadn’t for a long while. She was a quality-over-quantity kinda gal. Maybe she only wanted Lala-chan around to provide intoxication. _Some friend I am._

As she gazed at the purple-and-gold bird, she did want to see Lala-chan again. Ichiko seemed to piss her off more than the other regulars of Crossroads. She had seen it, Lala-chan could be downright sweet with whoever she wanted, bubbly and chipper and dripping with the joy only drag queens know. Ichiko’s hefty tabs and bad-taste jokes about drinking with that high school kid earned her some sharp scoldings, but Ichiko did want to see Lala-chan smile. She picked this card because she thought Lala-chan would see the resemblance in an instant, and she’d giggle and coo over it and find a thumbtack so she could pin it behind Ichiko’s favorite whiskey brand.

Ugh, she was on vacation—a working vacation, but whatever, she was _abroad_ —and she couldn’t get her thoughts away from either Japan or the rottenness of the world. Hawaii sold peaceful experiences to people, sometimes with such crass commercialism that only the stupidest would be taken in, but it was everywhere. 'Pay us to give you peace.' Maybe the islands really were peaceful when King Kamehameha ruled it.

_Hi Lala-chan! I’m in paradise and I’m having a terrible time!_

Ichiko’s cafe umbrella moved its shadow, so she had to trade seats to stay in the shade. She even pulled out her tablet to proofread her next articles rather than try to fill out the postcard. Which, that was also dumb of her. She was crashing at an expat colleague’s place, sleeping on his couch in exchange for her research about the Phantom Thieves. America was two months behind Japan’s scoops anyway, so Ichiko didn’t feel bad trading information for a roof. She’d be jet lagged tonight anyway, so she could write at his kitchen table for hours. No need to waste the sunlight hours on work.

Maybe she should just doodle a snail on the postcard? No, that’d be lazy…

She wished it was easier to just enjoy herself. She enjoyed a lot of things! She liked eating tasty food until she felt ready to burst, singing her heart out in karaoke, she liked reading biographies and memoirs of historical figures, full of murders and scams and thefts and scandals. She’d been like that as a kid too, wondering how so many ‘great men’ in her history book were also guilty of terrible crimes—or even just minor ones, like neglecting wives and having bad personalities. Ichiko had always wished she could be someone who took them down a peg. Like when they went to Hell, they’d find her waiting with a pitchfork. But after she got reassigned, she felt like she couldn’t do anything to get back at the powerful anymore. And if the powerful could just get away with whatever they wanted, then what was the point of good food and karaoke?

_Lala-chan~! Humanity is doomed and I went to Hawaii to find out! Ehehe~!_

Ugh. Was this really how far she’d fallen? Maybe she was the one in Hell, getting poked by the pitchforks of shitty karma. And maybe she was mixing up her religions.

Dinnertime arrived with most all of Ichiko’s work done. That kind of surprised her. Maybe it was easier to work without a beer in hand, no matter how much less enjoyable it was. She should try and remember that. Which, speaking of… it was about time to break her dry spell.

She walked down the boardwalk until she found a bar with a Phantom Thieves card posted on a corkboard, alongside foreign currency like yen, euros, and Australian dollars. She flicked her phone’s voice memo app on to catch the proprietors thoughts—could spice up her next piece if she had primary source quotes about how the whole world loved Japan’s own Phantom Thieves—before she ordered a Tequila Sunrise. Once the bartender made her drink, she took it to the bar’s tables out front.

Behind Ichiko’s back, the world had turned to gold.

The blinding sands had muted into soft amber, flowing over the shore. Darker waves lapped slowly at the edge, and Ichiko could swear they moved languidly now. No more surfers, no more swells, just a calm ocean. The sky traded its blues for yellows—and pinks, and oranges, and dusky deep navy approaching on the horizon. And at the center of it all, the sun: shrinking, but not fading. Like it knew its time was coming, but it wouldn’t leave unless it went out in a blaze of glory.

_I can’t believe I forgot the sun could do that._

Ichiko almost lost her grip on her Tequila Sunrise—she didn’t, but she got close. But before she took a single sip, she set it down on the table and pulled out the postcard again. Now, she knew exactly what to write.

_Lala-chan -_  
_In this bitch of a world, it’s important to have friends._  
_Thank you for being one of mine._  
_\- Ichiko._

**Author's Note:**

> I got some very good advice to end this story with the postcard's note, but I wrote this stinger too. Consider it a post-credits scene.
> 
> ~~
> 
> With that critical task completed, Ichiko slipped the postcard back into her bag and took a sip of her cocktail. Very tasty and energetic, especially with the bite of tequila. Obviously a tropical treat, and a delicious companion to the warm evening. People-watching on the beach turned from an exercise in guilt and envy to an enjoyable pastime. There were a lot of couples out, like those two teenagers sitting on that bench together.
> 
> Wait…
> 
> She pulled her Nikon from her bag and raised it to her eyes, pushing the zoom as far as it would go. 
> 
> “…Son of a bitch!"


End file.
